Information for the Westdale Secondary School Rowing Community

MAC 2X4 REVIEW/ROWING THIS WEEK

Well done to all crews who participated at Mac 2×4! Some of you left before I had a chance to congratulate you. Winners were the Junior lightweight four of Liv, Charlotte, Ryann, Maggie & Molly, as well as the Junior Men’s four of Max, Ethan, Geon and Liam, coxed ably by Maura and Ella! There was some scrambling needed in the Sr Lightweight women’s categories, where Maddy had to pull out with a late injury, necessitating Meegan being called up at the last minute. They performed well and pushed a very good St. Mary’s crew to the max before finishing second. Samantha was able to perform fill in duties for our other Sr Lightweight crew, joining Alia, Caroline and Katie Mac, pushing hard all the way, kept the splits solid, and finished fourth. Our final race of the day, was our mixed crew of Meegan, Alex J, Owen and Robin. Rowing against older competition, they raced really hard–a credit to their own age category punching up a grade.
What I was struck with watching these races is how well you all rowed at the higher rates. Sometimes high rate rowing on ergs looks out of control and (frankly), ugly. You probably witnessed some of that on Saturday, but our crews looked REALLY good! Makes me excited to see what you can do on the water! Finally, we were able to capture the women’s points trophy! I will bring it on Monday morning. Well done to all! Not the easiest time of year to have this event, but you all competed really well! On to ON-WATER!!!

Speaking of which, Monday is a no-go due to cold–Minus-7 with the wind chill at 5am. Currently, Tuesday is not promising, either. I will update on Monday. Wednesday and Thursday are actually looking promising, while Friday isn’t!!!

Two new safety guidelines were established by the club, both of which I agree with. First, 0 degrees will be the threshold for novices, and a minus-5 wind chill for experienced rowers. Anything colder than that, we’re staying on the land. Also, doubles and singles won’t be allowed out until the surface temp hits 4 degrees. It is currently under 1 degree, but should warm up once the weather gets better. My guess is that small boats will likely be looking at mid April at the latest. So eight, quads and fours it is, for now!

I know all these cancellations are somewhat frustrating. If it was April and all schools are on the water, we would actually likely be rowing. However we are FAR more stringent about conditions at this time because there are only two coach boats on the water, versus 10 on a usual April morning. For me to go out pre-April 1, it needs to be almost glass-like on the water.